Outblog No. 97

Friday, July 21, 2006

Camping Plans Tonight. I'm probably going up to Bates State Forest outside of Potters Hollow after seeing the movie, The Big Buy in Hudson. If it's well after dark I might skip that for Renselearville State Forest as I don't know my way around Bates too well but I really want to explore it.

The Route to Bates State Forest is via. Rte 353 / Potter Mountain Road, Goodfellow Road, Bates State Forest Road. Google Map, Topo Map.

Y'all have a great weekend. See you back here on Monday. P'Link

Don't Procceed Or You'll Get a Ticket. I was up on the truck trail at Bates State Forest. I wanted to explore it to decide if I wanted to camp, and I ran into what appeared to be a local. Simply said, they didn't want any foreigners from the area in their state forest, and try to insist to me that the area was off-limits, despite being state land and a state truck trail.

I simply said, okay, and backed off. I didn't want to stay there as I figured I'd probably be harassed by these idiots in the middle of the night. I doubt the forest ranger would give a damn about me camping up there, as it's allowed under the law, although I guess I couldn't get my truck off the truck trail far enough to technically be legal.

At any rate, it was getting dark, so I decided to go on home. There was no obvious good places to camp just off the truck trail, though it followed a beautiful mountain road. I thought about going to Renselearville SF, but I was too tired to continue on. P'Link

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Bike Ride in the Switzkill Valley. It was a beautiful cool summer afternoon, abit somewhat cloudy at time. That did little to hide all the beauty of this valley. While I had a little trouble keeping pressure in the back tire of my bike as it had a leak, it still was very enjoyable.

These notes from the bike ride:

1. Parked Truck Here. Man working on fence around horse pasture.
2. Long section of road with hayfields on both sides and farm. No cows at farm, though noticed somebody burning debris down on Route 13.
3. Narrow section of road, run down old farm.
4. Nice views of valley, unfortunately my camera batteries are dead. Somebody stopped by and wanted to know how to get to Route 443.
5. Passed some people going for a walk. It's a nice ride through here, and shady. Person out there combing her horse at horsing boarding place.
6. Former CAFO farm that used to have a lot of beef cattle. All I see around now are some white-faced herefords grazing in a distant pasture and some horses closer to the farm houses. Smell some strong rotting hay or grain, though still just a memory of the smell of this farm years ago.
7. Rode a little ways up Bradt Hollow by the old school up there and a couple of small houses along the road. Like so many others around here, they all have nice little Silverado pickup trucks.

One thing that kind of struck me in the valley was the lack of cattle at any of the farms. I guess with the destruction of crops from rain (one farm I passed had corn that was just starting), many farmers decided to cash in on the higher priced cattle markets in the spring.

Returning back to my truck and I drove the truck up to Fawn Lake, going up the spectaular Sickle Hill. It was a nice up there and read a little bit of my book for a couple of hours. P'Link